Groh `Wakes Up,' Ipga Title In Reach

Gary Groh, three-time Illinois PGA champion, did not lead the field into Wednesday's second round of this year's tournament at Kemper Lakes.

That's because of what Bob O'Link pro and former PGA Tour player Groh called "my two fall-asleep holes."

Groh scored bogey and double-bogey Tuesday on the relatively easy 13th and 14th holes. That cost him a share of the lead, held by first-round 69 shooters Doug Bauman of Biltmore and Billy Rosinia of Ravisloe.

However, the way Groh woke up from his brief nap and played Kemper's demanding finishing holes, 15 through 18, salvaged a par 72 and kept him in striking position to win his fourth title in 10 years in the 54-hole event.

Groh parred the 557-yard 15th and the 426-yard 16th. Facing swirly 25 m.p.h. right-to-left winds, he earned his 3 on the dangerous water-surrounded 17th green. Then he holed a 30-foot birdie putt on No. 18.

By playing the four final holes in 1-under par, Groh matched the cards of co-leaders Bauman and Rosinia and by 71 shooters Bob Ackerman of Aurora and Steve Benson of Hillcrest, the 1982-84 Illinois PGA champ.

"That's the key here," said former Illinois Open champ Ackerman. "If you play these four final holes in par, you pick up two, three, four shots on the field, because those holes play so hard, especially in the wind."

Ackerman hit one of the day's most spectacular shots on the most threatening hole on the course to earn his 1-under report card on Nos. 15-18. "I `skanked' my 6-iron into the sand trap, and then toppled in the shot from 30 yards for my birdie 2," said Ackerman.

Groh matched Tim Troy of Troy Golf Club and Bob Bailey of Edgebrook at par 72. Groh also put on a clinic for any golfer who has ever allowed a couple of "fall-asleep" holes to turn a promising round into a disaster.

"I was really upset, frustrated, less than elated," said Groh, the Illinois PGA champ in 1983, '86 and '89. "I'd worked my way to 2-under through 12 holes and should have had pars or birdies on 13 and 14. Now, I was 1-over and facing the hardest holes on the course."

Experience, Groh explained, kept his wheels from spinning off and flying all over the Kemper landscape.

"The only thing that helped me then," he said, "was that I've played so much and been in that situation so much, I just knew I had to try not to let those mistakes affect the next hole."

Groh, 47, played the pro tour in 1971-79. He won the Hawaiian Open in 1975, finishing one stroke ahead of Arnold Palmer and Al Geiberger. Using that experience, be blocked out the bad chip on 13 and the missed green and missed putt at 14 and played the four final holes in 1-under.

"The way to score here," said Groh, "is to start good and finish good." He did exactly that, starting 3-3-3, with birds on the first two holes.

Groh has another thing going for him this week. He hits low line drives, shots less likely to be affected by the winds.

Bauman and Rosinia each teed off early in the morning before the winds kicked up. Each began play off the 10th tee and shot 69. Otherwise, their starts were almost entirely different. Rosinia, a Ravisloe assistant, birdied his first three holes, sinking putts of 18 and 15 feet on Nos. 10 and 12 and knocking an approach 2 feet from the pin at No. 11.

Bauman clunked his first shot of the day so deep into the rough he almost lost the ball. He found it, chipped back into the fairway, hit a great third shot, holed an 18-footer for par, birdied No. 11 and was on his way.

"I might not have found it," Bauman said. "I could have had a 6 or 7 on my first hole."